We use the term “pub­lic space” as a catch-all to denote the world out­side our front doors, but not all spaces really draw the pub­lic to them.

Think about the pub­lic spaces in your city. There may be a cent­ral square, a town hall or par­lia­ment, which it defines as its heart, cul­tural and edu­ca­tional insti­tu­tions, or per­haps a river or har­bour. A major park (every city needs lungs) where people exer­cise, relax or escape the heat. There are aven­ues and trans­port arter­ies that act as spines, draw­ing com­merce and activ­ity along them to mar­kets or monu­ments, while within the dense skirt of the city smal­ler streets roll out link­ing schools, industry and homes.

Is this a suc­cess­ful social space? Pub­lic art out­side Bangkok Art and Cul­ture Centre

As these ele­ments are rep­lic­ated across the sprawl of our grow­ing cit­ies, in some places, the com­bin­a­tion works to encour­age social inter­ac­tion, entre­pren­eur­ial cre­ativ­ity and a feel­ing of par­ti­cip­a­tion in a lar­ger community.

People liv­ing in and vis­it­ing cit­ies seek out life, oppor­tun­it­ies for inter­ac­tion, people watch­ing, and mak­ing con­nec­tions with other people in those kinds of social spaces.

A con­nec­tion can hap­pen over a piece of fruit at a mar­ket stall or over a piece of pub­lic art, on a park bench or train plat­form, and it’s a tricky thing to plan for. In no small way these small moments of par­ti­cip­a­tion in pub­lic life affirm our sense of belong­ing to a place, and can empower people to claim respons­ib­il­ity for their cities.

Spaces to reflect and relax | Hyde Park, London

Through this blog, our con­trib­ut­ors – and, we hope, you – will share obser­va­tions about streets and space in their cit­ies. There’s no golden for­mula, and a space can fall out of favour or lose its pop­u­la­tions in many ways, but there are a few ele­ments they have in com­mon. By intro­du­cing pro­jects from around the region and launch­ing dis­cus­sions about the ideas they raise about social spaces, inter­views, photo-essays and your con­tri­bu­tions, we hope to uncover how some places become social mag­nets, and to pull back to exam­ine the social impact of cre­at­ing inclus­ive, act­ive spaces for people to inter­act in.

Bangkok night market

This con­ver­sa­tion takes place at a cru­cial moment. Pop­u­la­tions shift, and cit­ies adapt or spring up, fluc­tu­at­ing with the sea­sons or the mar­ket, with all the attend­ant costs.

Many cit­ies face sus­tain­ab­il­ity chal­lenges, skills short­ages,  oth­ers have to man­age an influx of invest­ment and a shift towards know­ledge eco­nom­ies. The devel­op­ment of the built envir­on­ment and infra­struc­ture of cit­ies is always con­ten­tious, but noth­ing is more elu­sive than provid­ing an atmo­sphere for the net­works of sup­port, stim­u­la­tion and social integ­ra­tion that cre­at­ive cit­ies require.

Organ­iz­a­tions and indi­vidu­als from across the spec­trum of fields are examin­ing the urban envir­on­ment and are work­ing to find cre­at­ive local way to address these chal­lenges. This pro­ject seeks to high­light their work and encour­age dis­cus­sion about approaches to urban devel­op­ment for cre­at­ive cities.

Spaces to inspire new think­ing | Frank Gehry’s Ser­pent­ine Pavil­lion, London

Some of the ideas we would like to explore through this theme include:

• How do we use the pub­lic spaces of our cities?
• Which spaces are public-friendly, social spaces, and what impact do they have on the exper­i­ence of liv­ing in a city?
• How can our social inter­ac­tions in social spaces affect the sense of con­nec­tion we feel to a place? Can they influ­ence cre­at­ive expres­sion and entre­pren­eur­ship in a city?
• What role does pub­lic art play in cities?
• What makes a park people-friendly?
• What are com­plete streets? What role does a lively side­walk and street cul­ture play in devel­op­ing cre­at­ive, inclus­ive and sus­tain­able cities?
• How do we exper­i­ence diversity in our day to day lives — and how does diversity mani­fest itself in the social spaces of our cit­ies? How is this dif­fer­ent to the “geo­graphy of blandness”?
• Dis­tinct­ive, dis­ordered occu­pa­tions and informal uses
• Mixed-use spaces vs use zoning
• The sens­ory land­scapes of cities
• The place­mak­ing movement
• The roles lib­rar­ies, museums, cinemas and cul­tural spaces play in devel­op­ing social inter­ac­tion and a sense of com­munity in cities
• Trans­port infra­struc­ture, traffic arter­ies and human move­ment through cities.
• Lim­inal spaces, invest­ig­at­ing how we use and enjoy those un-defined spaces in our cities
• Mar­kets as cata­lysts for social engage­ment with cit­ies and communities
• How do major insti­tu­tions, monu­ments and malls define our social spaces?